Despite receiving a $535 million federal loan and about $1 billion in venture capital, high-profile solar-panel maker Solyndra Inc. plans to file for bankruptcy protection, undermined by a weak global economy and competition from China.Solyndra's failure has brought up bigger issues, like what justified the federal loan to begin with:
Lots of venture capital companies bought into the hype, investing in green technology to piggyback their own capital on federal favoritism. Solyndra's relationship with the White House came under special scrutiny because of Solyndra backer and Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser's history as an Obama fundraiser. In a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu in February, the House Energy and Commerce Committee raised concerns about the loan, noting that the company had suffered "financial setbacks," and asking for information about "whether Solyndra was the right candidate" for the loan guarantee.Zero Hedge called this the day before:
These points all lead me to wonder about a big company in this space, Solyndra. This is a private company. I don’t have any financials to look at as a result. Neither do you. But you should, this company is heavily indebted to Uncle Sam.So what in God's name are they doing?
I don't want to get too much into chrony capitalism, using public funds to feed special interests or to benefit campaign financiers. There are better solar companies that are thriving. Why did Obama put it into that black box?
Clearly, there's bigger problems:
Arlington officials boast the project will save $14,000 in annual electricity costs, but the solar panels have a life span of no more than 10 to 15 years. So the feds spent $300,000 to shave at most $150,000 off the net present value of Arlington's electric bills. Some 3,000 counties across the country received federal funds for the same kind of negative-return energy conservation "investments." This is the kind of "clean energy" program the administration wants to expand.He has no idea what he's doing. It makes no economic sense to put money into a technology that doesn't pay off. This is throwing money away. The construction jobs are temporary. This is wasted money. Without even getting into where the money is going, a rich county, it doesn't make sense to put solar panels on a roof when it doesn't make economical sense. That's not investing in clean technology. That's wasting money.
Investing in clean technology would mean growing the technology so that there are jobs to help advance the technology within the industry. Obama has been so out of touch with what really works and that's the problem. He keeps talking about stimulus and improving infrastructure, but all he's doing is creating temporary low-skill jobs. On top of that, when he's investing into new technologies, he's putting money into failing companies like Solyndra.
I think it's safe to say that Obama has not delivered on his promise to create clean technology jobs, but to go even further, I'm not sure he even knows what creating jobs is. The struggling economy and his failed policies only reinforce this belief.
